


If The Hero Is Me We're Doomed

by raendown



Series: Super Idiots [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27258214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Months after their rescue from the bowels of hell Kakashi and Obito finally have a chance to take on their very first mission as supers. It's terrifying, of course it is, but it's good to finally give back against the ones who hurt them. Afterwards they must take on an even more difficult mission: dealing with their own emotions.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito
Series: Super Idiots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1098528
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaiyaru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiyaru/gifts).



> Happy birthday to someone who deserves many good things. ;)
> 
>  **Important:** Please note that this story is part of a series and does not explain itself much. If you're confused about some things I would recommend reading the first two of the series. And if you still have questions after then don't worry, there are more stories to come!

Through the curtains in his window Kakashi watched the dawn rise cold and gray, heavy clouds heralding the rain they had all been waiting for. Sometimes it was still hard to understand why he got the chance to see things like this again when so many others never would. Tsunade called it survivor’s guilt, always with the same darkly knowing tone, the same deep pain in her eyes that could have almost been pity if she would ever put down the whiskey long enough to feel something like that. 

Whatever it was, these weren’t the kind of thoughts he wanted to start his day with. Turning away from the window brought his eyes past the mess he’d made of his own covers to settle on the shadow of Obito’s figure sleeping in another bed on the other side of the room. The facilities their resistance group used as a base had plenty of room, there really wasn’t a need for the two of them to share space like this, but the idea of separating made the very skin on his body crawl with dread. Rin wasn’t the only person who’d noticed how captivity had changed them, though she was usually the only person bold enough to actually say something about it to their faces. This new codependency between them was only one of the things that seemed here to stay. 

“I’m awake, I swear,” Obito’s voice drifted out from under the mountain of blankets covering his form. 

“Lazybones,” Kakashi accused him. 

“Oi!” Indignation brought his friend up in an instant, clawing his way out from under the covers to glare. “Which one of us complained about phantom pains for three weeks after he was totally healed just for an excuse to lie in bed?”

Heaving himself up on to his feet was a great effort but Kakashi did so anyway just for the full effect of rolling his eyes from so far above Obito’s head. “Well excuse me for staying and keeping you company in the med bay.”

With that he swept out of the room, chin held high and lips tight to contain his smile until the bedroom door shut behind him. His steps were slow and deliberate on his way down the hall, head cocked to listen closely, smile fading in to a knowing smirk when the door crashed open again for Obito to stumble out in to the hall. Low growls accompanied the stomping footsteps that chased after him until his friend thumped a fist against the back of his left shoulder. 

“You knew I would follow you for that!” Obito accused, to which he gave a light shrug. 

“I can’t help being able to see the future.”

“Huh. Well...hmph! It only works for like a minute or so forward!” 

“That’s enough to use against you,” Kakashi pointed out. 

Letting Obito’s highly offended cry of “Unfair!” herald their arrival was, at this point, fairly par for the course of their day to day lives in the compound. Kakashi pushed his way in to the kitchen and found several adults already looking his way with a mixture of annoyance and fond indulgence. Ignoring the ones who didn’t seem to have finished their first coffee of the day yet, he headed over to the cupboard where Itama always made sure to pick up some kind of sugary breakfast cereal when he made his grocery runs. Having the ability to change his appearance at will made him the only one of their number who could safely go out in to the rest of the world. Being illegal sucked. 

Obito had only just crashed in to the room and reached out to snatch the cereal for himself when the door slammed open again. The entire kitchen fell still to take in the way Touka’s brows were furrowed with worry. 

“They’re transporting prisoners,” she declared to the group at large. “Supers, young ones. They’re being transported to one of the facilities we’ve been trying to investigate for months now. We don’t even know for sure what goes on in there.”

“We need to stop them!” Obito cried, clutching the box of sugary loops close to his chest. 

“That was the plan,” Touka agreed.

“So what are we waiting for?” 

Pursing her lips made him shrink down for a moment before he lifted his chin defiantly. Kakashi rolled his eyes at both of them. Touka indulged Obito in a staring contest for several heartbeats before realizing she was engaged in a battle of wills with a teenager and collected herself with a quiet snort. 

“Rin is already setting up in the communications room, I need everyone available to come with me. We might not know much about the drop location but we all know what horrors those facilities are capable of. I’m willing to bet they’re not going out for an afternoon frolic.” She shook her head and turned back towards the door with a gesture encouraging them all to follow her. Obito dropped his box of cereal and stepped forward immediately - only to falter when Touka blocked him with a hand on his chest. “Where do you think you’re going, small fry?” 

“With you!” 

One of her eyebrows lifted, sharp face made even sharper by such a disapproving expression. “You, my eager little one, are still a child.”

“I am not!” Obito snarled. 

“We’re fourteen,” Kakashi corrected her with one hand on his best friend's shoulder. “More than old enough to help out. Just let us come with you. We’ll follow orders, we won’t take any unnecessary risks; we just want to help. Especially if it means we get to stick it to the people who held  _ us _ like animals.” 

“Ugh. How did I not expect you to throw that in my face? Fine. You can come but I swear, either one of you steps one toe out of line and you’re not leaving this compound until you’re eighteen!” 

She turned away with a scowl, shoulders tight and fists clenched at her sides, ignorant to the subtle but triumphant high five Kakashi and Obito shared behind her back. The two of them were at the front of the group that funneled out of the kitchen after her, heading towards what Tobirama often called the ‘war room’ under his breath whenever his brother wasn’t listening. Hashirama preferred to just call it a meeting room but everyone knew the only time meetings were held there was to brief and debrief them for missions. 

As expected, several of the people in the room when they arrived had already changed in to their super uniforms. Kakashi couldn’t help letting his eyes roam over the different elements included in each outfit as he followed Obito to the far corner, a quiet spot out of the way. It was never too early to start thinking about what design he might want for his own uniform. Would a cape look cool? Madara wore a cape. On second thought, Kakashi shook his head. A cape would probably just get tangled around in his legs and trip him up at some really important moment when he needed to move fast. How Madara hadn’t managed to kill himself with his own clothing yet was a mystery. 

Surprisingly, Obito managed to stay relatively still throughout the entire briefing as Hashirama laid out everything they knew about the transfer they meant to intercept. Admittedly they didn’t know much, only what they had managed to pick up from some hacked radio communications. What they did know was that there would be multiple prisoners, all of them young, and several vans for security. When he’d given them all the information that he could Hashirama started in on wishing them all good luck and reminding everyone to be as careful as possible - only to pause halfway through a sentence when he spotted Kakashi and Obito sitting unobtrusively out of the way. Both of his eyebrows flew up immediately. 

“Now how did the two of you slip in here? This is important, boys, this isn’t play.”

“We’re coming too!” Obito declared. Hashirama pursed his lips. 

“Is that the best idea? Wanting to help others is a noble thing but what we do outside this compound is dangerous. I would think you two, above all others, would know that.” 

Kakashi cleared his throat so he wouldn’t laugh at the sour expression on Touka’s face as he said, “We’ve already gotten permission from one of the adults to come along. And we’ve already promised that we’ll be extra careful and follow any orders we’re given.” 

Several of the others began murmuring quietly to each other but there was one gaze that Kakashi could feel the weight of even before he turned to meet it, red eyes watching him in their usual contemplative manner. 

“Let them come,” Tobirama said quietly to his brother. 

“But Tobi! It’s-”

“Yes, it is dangerous. Does that mean any of us should not go? If this is a cause they are willing to put their lives on the line for can we dismiss that kind of passion offhand?” Shifting his weight, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze, Tobirama shook his head. “You don’t know what it’s like to watch from the sidelines while everyone else does the saving for you.”

“Tobi…”

No one in the room spoke for several awkward moments, enough time for Tobirama to nod in their direction, to which Kakashi nodded back in gratitude. He should have known there would be at least one person willing to back their efforts to get involved. He really should have known it would be Tobirama.

It was just hard sometimes to sit around all safe and protected inside the compound where nothing could get through the shield that Rin maintained night and day, hard to do nothing while dozens of others like himself were still trapped in the clutches of a government that wanted to eradicate them all. Sometimes it was torture trying to sleep through the memories of screams echoing off the walls. Kakashi wasn’t sure he could have looked his own reflection in the eye for much longer if he hadn’t at least tried to get out there and make whatever difference he could. No one was really sure where these powers had come from or why only some people had them but as long as he had powers himself he might as well use them for something good. Letting bad things happen without trying to help was almost as bad as doing it himself in his books. 

Eventually the briefing picked up again as Tobirama reminded them in a low mumble that time was of the essence. Kakashi and several others afforded him the privacy of pretending not to see the way Madara sidled a little closer, turning his attention instead to the rest of whatever Hashirama had to say. It wasn’t much. Monitoring the radios could only give them so much information. After fighting this harrowing resistance for so many years, however, they were able to make a few educated guesses about what they might be walking in to and even though Kakashi didn’t understand a lot of what was going on he understood his own role perfectly fine. 

Get in. Get to the imprisoned supers. Get out. Hopefully without losing any lives or limbs along the way. 

“Right,” Hashirama clapped his hands together, lips pressed together so tightly their usual fullness turned white and thin. “Everyone get suited up and meet in the garage. Touka and I will have vehicles and combat kits ready to leave. Kakashi, Obito, I know the two of you don’t have suits yet so I would suggest you change in to something you can move around in.”

“Yes sir!” Obito threw an enthusiastic salute. 

The room shifted around them as all the adults streamed out to prepare themselves. Kakashi was already halfway across the room when a cool breeze wafted against the back of his neck and Tobirama’s voice spoke from above. “Keep your heads down and do as you’re told like you promised; when we get back I’ll have a word with Minato about designing suits for both of you.”

He was gone as quickly as he appeared. Not being able to deactivate his powers had taught him how to avoid human contact at all times for fear of accidentally hurting someone. It reminded Kakashi of the first few weeks after Obito discovered his ability, how he couldn’t stop walking through solid objects, struggled to even pick up a pencil or sit on a chair. Just trying to imagine what it would be like to live with that every moment of every day made him shudder, deliberately clearing his mind of anything but the task at hand. 

“Can you believe it?” Obito demanded the second they were alone in their room again. “This is so awesome! Finally a chance to prove ourselves!” 

“A chance to make a difference,” Kakashi corrected him.

“To be a  _ hero _ .”

“Ugh.”

Of all the things he used to dream about being when he grew up, a hero wasn’t even on the list. As a child Kakashi had liked action movies just fine but he’d enjoyed playing with his dogs much better. Being a hero always seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Any person with a good heart could do what needed to be done without all the troublesome accolades - or the gaudy posturing that came out whenever Madara pulled off another daring save. Lots of things had changed after developing his powers forced him to grow up just a little too fast. His dreams were only one small part of a long list.

Since they were pressed for time the two of them didn’t waste any more on conversation. Hashirama had told them to throw on something they could move in and then get to the garage so that’s what they did, changing in to loose shirts and pants that wouldn’t split a seam if they needed to duck and cover in some kind of awkward position. It was gratifying to see that they had actually beaten several of the adults there but Kakashi supposed that’s what they got for including so much lycra in their uniforms. Stretchy material like that always needed to sit just so if you didn’t want to showcase any unfortunate shapes underneath. His uniform, when Minato got around to helping him design it, would be much more practical. 

Alright so maybe he might include a mask. He liked a little drama, so sue him. 

When they scurried in to the garage they found Tobirama still dressed in regular clothes and engaged in a heated whispering argument with his brother. For once Hashirama looked the more forbidding of the two, arms crossed and lips pursed, his expression pulled in tight as he shook his head. Kakashi wondered what they were arguing about.

He didn’t have to wonder for long. The sensation of forewarning was difficult to describe; if asked he would have said it was like watching a movie that played only inside his head except that the knowledge was instantaneous. 

_ “I still don’t like it,” Hashirama murmurs. “They’re so young. And they only just escaped from one of these facilities. What if-” _

_ “Don’t you think that’s probably what’s motivating their desire to help others?” _

_ “You said as much upstairs. I’m just worried about what would happen to them if they went back there. So many things could go wrong and we can’t watch them every second, we’ll have our own jobs to do.” _

_ Tobirama heaves a sigh and looks away. “Anija, I love you, but you don’t know what it is to be helpless. They do. If you force them to stay behind they will only find a way to do what they feel they need to without your permission. A little supervision is better than none.” _

_ Running a hand through his long hair, Hashirama hesitates before reaching out to touch his brother’s arm with the pinched look on his face smoothing over in to guilt.  _

Long used to sudden influxes of knowledge and the resulting disorientation as he snapped back to reality, Kakashi didn’t so much as miss a step after his vision. A smile touched his face to know that Tobirama was still fighting for them. Following Obito in to the closest vehicle, he could hear Hashirama muttering that he still didn’t like things and decided to simply let the future stay it’s own course without interference, closing the door to let Tobirama fight their battle for them and leaning obnoxiously against Obito’s side instead. As expected, his friend immediately began tussling with him for more space. 

“What’s your problem, dick head?” Obito demanded. 

“Just forcing you to make noise so you don’t have to hear what they’re talking about,” Kakashi told him innocently. 

“Oh. Had another vision?” 

“Yup. Short version is that Hashirama still isn’t sure he can stop being a mother hen long enough to let us help out but in the end he’s going to let us. I don’t know why he even bothers trying to argue with his brother.” 

Snickering, Obito reached up to flick him in the forehead. “Yeah, you genius types are pretty annoying when you’re right all the time.” 

The two of them bickered like best friends do until the van door opened again and Rin popped her head in to smile at them both. Kakashi blinked at her curiously. 

“You’re coming too?” he asked, relieved when she shook her head. 

“No, you know I can’t leave the compound,” she said.

Which wasn’t exactly true. She was free to leave at any time if she asked to. Her power was what kept her here, reluctant to go and leave their safe space unprotected. The ability to create a barrier large enough to encompass an entire city block would have been impressive on its own even if she weren’t one of the few whose power remained active even when she wasn’t actively thinking about it. Ironically, Kakashi thought with a wry smile, she still had a suit made for her ages back. She’d shown it to him once, a mixture of modern kevlar and ancient armor designs. It was a strangely fitting concoction of an outfit. 

“I just wanted to come and tell you both to be safe or I swear I will drag you back from the dead myself just to kick your asses.” Her words were delivered through clenched teeth bared in the sweetest of smiles. Beside him, Kakashi heard Obito gulp with fear. 

“Yes ma’am!” 

“Good. Oh, and I brought you these. With Asuma around the air tends to get a little clogged.”

Stretching to reach them, she handed over two folded pieces of cloth for them to tie around their faces if needed. Kakashi took them with a grateful nod and a quiet, “Thank you.” 

“I’ll be in the communication room. Where you’re going you’ll be out of my range but I can get pretty far out and still cover this whole place; if you need me to meet you in the middle somewhere then you find a com and you scream, got it?” 

“A com?” Obito cocked his head in confusion. 

“Communication device,” a new voice chimed in. Izuna was pointing at his ear when he poked his head round the edge of the open door. “You haven’t been assigned your own yet so Mito is grabbing a couple of backups for you two.”

“Right…”

Stepping back so Izuna had room to pile in to the van, Rin cast one more warning look at them before taking a deep breath and murmuring wishes of good luck. Kakashi watched her go and wondered how hard this was for her. The last time she said goodbye to the two of them they’d been captured and held captive then experimented on. He didn’t need any of the adults to say anything to know that both of them had come back from those experiences changed. Letting them out from the boundaries of her protective shield must have been hard. 

When they returned - and they would return, he refused to go back to those cold and sterile places - maybe he would let her hug him without complaint just this once. 

As though the world had paused to allow them their goodbyes, as soon as Rin was out of sight it felt like things leapt in to motion suddenly, so fast it was hard to keep up. One moment there were only the two of them and Izuna in the van. The next moment Hashirama had squeezed himself in behind the wheel and Mito sat next to him, calmly giving directions as they and another vehicle peeled out of the garage. Her expression softened ever so slightly when she twisted to extend one arm in to the back of the van. Kakashi eyed the two little devices sitting in the palm of her hand for several moments before remembering that she was supposed to be bringing coms for the two of them. He plucked one up for himself with two fingers in a delicate grip, twisting it from side to side, wondering how it worked. 

“Like this.” Izuna plucked the device from Obito’s palm, laughing at the matching confusion on his face, and pointed out which end to press inside their ear. “For this kind of mission we program them so that everything you say loudly enough will be picked up by the com, no need to activate it. If you’re going to be whispering, though, you’ve got to press this button here.” He handed it back and both boys turned their devices over a few more times for a closer inspection. 

After he finally slipped it in to his ear Kakashi listened to Mito and Hashirama laying out what the plan was for everyone. Fighting was not their primary objective in today’s little adventure. Their more experienced fighters would engage if necessary but that was just a distraction; the main objective was to free the children being transported and remove them from government control. As a concept not that difficult but Kakashi had an inkling that things weren’t going to be as simple as all that. Things tended to complicate themselves whenever he and Obito were working on something together. 

Life would probably be a lot simpler if he thought he could ever convince himself not to spend so much time at Obito’s side. 

An impossible feat if there had ever been one. 

“So who’s in the other van?” his friend asked, almost as if he knew he was already on Kakashi’s mind. “I didn’t really look around to see who was in the room before.” 

“Touka and Itama are there, Madara too. Asuma of course. The ash he breathes can provide us with some cover.” Hashirama sounded much too cheerful for a man setting out on a rescue mission. 

Kakashi scratched fitfully at the patch covering his left eye. “Isn’t his ash explosive? Is that safe?” 

“Oh it’s only explosive if he sets it off, don’t you worry!” 

“Wouldn’t Madara’s fire light it up?” 

“Nonsense, they’ve both got better aim than that!” Meeting Kakashi’s gaze in the rearview mirror, Hashirama granted him a soothing smile. “This isn’t our first rodeo, you know. We’ve had years to come in to our powers and most of us have worked together long enough to know how to keep each other safe. Just keep your mind on your own task and use the coms if you need help. Don’t worry about the rest of us.” 

Mito reached out to take hold of her husband’s chin and firmly turn him back towards the road. Then she twisted in the seat to look back for herself. “We will do what we must to keep you both from harm.”

A lovely sentiment but it wasn’t half as reassuring as she probably thought it would be. 

Sitting back a little deeper in to his seat, Kakashi tried not to let it show that his nerves had begun to affect him at last. They were going to do it. Finally they were going to take their chance at being the kind of people he had always admired, the supers who used their mysterious abilities to stand up for what was right. It was just that until he was here in the van on his way to throw his gauntlet in the ring he’d deliberately not given much thought to how much danger he would be putting himself in. 

Hurtling towards a potential battle at what he was sure was far above the posted speed limit, it occurred to him now. When thin fingers slipped in to his palm Kakashi curled his hand around Obito’s and held tight without saying a word. They had faced danger together before. Perhaps Mito’s words were a little more comforting than he’d thought; he would do whatever it took to keep Obito at his side. 


	2. Chapter 2

Memories of his own rescue being still foggy on the rare occasion he tried to recall the details, Kakashi wasn’t sure how he was expecting this adventure to go. All he could think about were the old action movies he used to watch when the babysitter had fallen asleep and he’d sneak downstairs to look at all the TV channels he wasn’t supposed to watch. With an imagination like his it was easy to picture wild car chases with daring maneuvers where the terrain always provided some kind of perfect escape at just the right moment. 

What happened instead was almost anticlimactic in comparison. With their own people monitoring the radio channels and relaying everything they picked up it was easy enough to track their targets until Hahirama could pull out of a side street to cut off the government convoy, forcing the entire line of vehicles to a screeching halt. Through the window they could see their second van pull in behind to block anyone from reversing. 

“Right, everyone out,” Hashirama announced unceremoniously. “And be careful!” 

“Not a chance!” Izuna crowed, throwing open the van door and immediately sending an arc of electricity towards the closest vehicle. 

For a split second Kakashi panicked - they had no idea which of these vehicles contained the prisoners they were here to rescue - until he noticed the bolts of electricity bouncing around each other in a ring on the pavement, close enough to keep everyone inside the van contained but not close enough to start zapping anyone. 

Hashirama leapt after the other man with a whoop and held out one hand, calling the wood from a nearby bench to grow in twisting patterns until the already trapped vehicle was completely encircled, doors firmly held shut with thick wooden beams. Mito’s exit was much more graceful and yet three times more terrifying. She moved with all the serenity of a queen right up until she had the space for her human form to warp, shift, bubble away until all that was left was a massive red fox. When she snapped her jaws the sound of her teeth clashing together echoed down the street. 

“Come on!” Obito’s voice was so unexpected Kakashi nearly jumped out of his skin. “They're making a scene, that’s our cover! Let’s go!” 

“Right!” 

Easier said than done. Following Obito out from the safety of the van was done with his heart hammering in his throat, hyper aware of everything happening around him. Micro visions assaulted him near constantly as the two of them ducked down behind some public letter boxes to try and get a better view inside the row of unmarked vans. How were they supposed to know which one to break in to? More than that, how were they supposed to get the prisoners away without anyone stopping them? Surely there would be guards or at least a driver. 

“Duck left!” Even as he spoke Kakashi reached over and shoved his friend aside just as some sort of blade came sailing past. The handle was carved with the distinct pattern that he had seen Touka practicing with a hundred times before. 

“Naginata needs to watch her damn aim,” Obito grumbled. 

“And you need to watch your damn head! That could have taken your other eye out!” 

His friend coughed, blushing with embarrassment for having to be saved, then he waved one careless hand and went back to watching the fray. “It’s fine, you’ve got my spare!” 

Before he could do more than grind his teeth together over such a frivolous response Kakashi was distracted by Mito, her massive fox form expanding even farther until she was big enough to lean down and sink her teeth in to the roof of one van, tearing it clean off only to toss the scrap in to the back of another vehicle. 

“I think Okami is hungry,” Obito chuckled. 

“She’s signalling us,” Kakashi hissed. “Look! She must have found the prisoners! We’re up!”

Making himself step out from behind the relative safety of cover was even more difficult with fear choking his airways but he did it. He had to do it. As eager as ever, Obito had already begun moving and phased straight through the post box, forcing Kakashi to scurry around them double time to catch up. Together they bent as low as they could while running towards the van that Mito had just plucked a screaming man out of and hurled away. They reached their target just as Asuma released a cloud of ash over the area and Kakashi hoped he remembered to thank the man later. 

While the others moved away, trying to keep attention anywhere but on their two youngest supers, Obito phased one hand through the remains of the mangled vehicle and pulled the door open. Both of them stared inside at the two figures huddled together, so small and so obviously terrified. Cuffs around their ankles prevented any thought of escape and one of them even had some sort of helmet buckled over his head that had no visor of any kind, only a small grate for breathing, making Kakashi wonder for the millionth time at the cruelty his own species was capable of. The anger inside of him welled up so suddenly he was forced to look away - and blinked when he spotted another figure unconscious on the floor. 

“Is he with them?”

“Well...he’s tied up like them,” Obito pointed out.

“Yeah. How are we supposed to carry him too?” Looking around, Kakashi wished he had some sort of tool belt or something. He could really use some rope. Two fourteen year old boys only a few months out of prolonged captivity weren’t going to be strong enough to carry a fully grown man. 

He looked up at the two children, trying not to feel instinctually guilty for the way the girl stared back with absolute terror in her eyes. She was a pretty little thing. A delicate face surrounded by hair so black it almost looked purple, hints of steel hiding under the effects of imprisonment and possible torture. He hated that he knew exactly how she felt. Just like he hated that he understood why she flinched away so violently when he slowly reached out a hand. 

“We’re not going to hurt you,” he told her. To his surprise she blinked at him once before all the tension in her body flowed away. 

“I believe you,” she whispered in a soft voice. 

“Take my hand. We’ll try- we’ll keep you safe, alright?” Halfway through his sentence Kakashi was smiling with renewed confidence, confident in the vision that had shown them all getting back to cover safely. He might only be able to see a minute or so in to the future at the farthest but that was long enough for a situation like this one. One very tiny hand slipped in to his own while Obito gently coaxed the helmeted child in to his arms so they could both unlock the ankle fetters for their new wards. 

Still hiding under the cover of Smog’s ash cloud, they paused to look back at the prone figure in the bottom of the car. “Should we try to bring him along?” Obito asked. 

“We’ll come back for him,” Kakashi decided. “These two are the priority. Haven’t you ever heard that women and children come first?” 

“Sexist,” Obito accused him with a tight grin. 

Instead of dignifying that with an answer Kakashi rolled his eyes and turned away with the little girl’s hand in his own. There was little need to think about which way to go when he had only just watched a vision of himself make the journey. Holding tightly, he waited until he saw a massive spire of vines reach up towards the sky at Omni’s call behind whispering for everyone to move, all four of them dashing back across the roadway to clamor in behind the same line of postboxes that provided them cover earlier. Once all of them were huddled together Kakashi peeked out and around back towards the car they had just come from. 

“Alright, I’ll lead these two away. Obito you go back and see if you can get that other guy to wake up.”

“Why me!?” 

“Because none of the bullets can hit you if you don’t let them,” Kakashi reminded him. 

His friend blinked rapidly several times and then smiled sheepishly. “Oh yeah. I can just-”

“Yeah, yeah, fade your way across the open space. Go on before your movement gives away my position with these two!” 

Ignoring the instinct to watch Obito’s every move was hard. Kakashi clenched his jaw so hard he was surprised none of his teeth cracked but he did manage not to grip the childrens’ hands too tightly as he led them away towards the small convoy they arrived in. Okami cleared a path for him as he had seen her doing in his vision and it was only a couple of minutes later that they were clamoring in to the van where he set about buckling the two of them in. All of the seatbelts were designed with a more efficient release system in case of emergency, a dual invention both Tobirama and Minato could take credit for. He was just showing the children how to use it so they felt safer being strapped down when Obito threw open the opposite van door. The unconscious man from before staggered behind him with unsteady balance and a vague expression. 

“I think he’s concussed,” Obito murmured, ushering the man in. His movements, Kakashi noted, were also oddly stiff. 

“You ok?” he asked. 

“I’m fine!” 

The little girl tugged on Kakashi’s sleeve until he leaned in so she could whisper, “He’s lying.” 

“I know,” he told her.

Keeping a sharp eye on the idiot crawling in next to him, Kakashi called over to the man still just standing beside the van and staring at them all like he was wondering if they were hallucinations of his own creation. 

“Got a name?” 

“Toxinic,” the man replied. His voice carried that same defensive quality every super had known at one time in their lives. 

“A real name?” Kakashi asked. “I’m not calling you by your super name over breakfast.”

“Breakfast? Yo, if you got food then I am  _ in _ . Name’s Genma. Haven’t eaten for a while. Got picked up by these government goons a few miles back and tossed in with the kids. They knocked me out when I put up a fight. I guess I was just too much for them to handle.” 

He climbed in to the van himself at last and pulled the door shut. Now that he was up close and animated Kakashi amended his guess at an age. Genma was no man; he couldn’t be more than a few years older than his rescuers, though he looked like he’d already gone through several growth spurts more than them. The moment they were all closed in together Genma began to chatter on about how he’d grown up on the street and only discovered his powers a year or so before, rambling his way through a couple of stories about narrow escapes that were clearly exaggerated to make him look extra cool. 

Thankfully it wasn’t too long after when the front doors were both thrown open for Hashirama and Mito to leap in at the same time. Almost the moment his butt touched the seat cushion Hashirama was cranking the engine and slamming his foot down on the gas pedal, the squeal of the tires only barely giving Izuna enough time to leap in to the front as well. Mito slammed her door shut with the younger man practically straddling her but seat capacity was the least of their worries at the moment. They struggled to untangle their limbs even as the van went hurtling down the street, the sound of Izuna’s swearing filling up the air and distracting them all until they were several streets away when he suddenly froze, unconcerned with the hand currently groping Mito’s left breast in a very uncomfortable way. 

“Where’s the other van?” he demanded. “Did they pull out too?” 

“They were right behind us!” Hashirama insisted, spinning the wheel through a sharp turn that sent everyone careening to one side. Izuna swore again and slammed a hand against the com in his ear. 

“Can you assholes hear me? Where the hell is my brother?” 

_ We took a different route _ .

The sound of Madara’s voice sent waves of relief throughout them all, Izuna all but melting over Mito’s form as he growled, “You could have said something!” 

_ Shut up, brat, they were hard on our tail. You’re welcome for leading them away! _

_ No one will thank you for getting yourself killed. _

Tobirama’s sharp interjection from the base made Kakashi snicker. When they all got back he had no doubts that Madara would be getting at least two different lectures on being safer in the field. From the stories he’d heard about the man’s recklessness it was probably needed. A passionate man with little skill for words, he apparently had a tendency for expressing himself through physical means such as taking a blow meant for another or throwing himself in to battle roaring nonsense battlecries. Kakashi could only regret that he’d been too busy to see it for himself today. 

A weight dropping on to his shoulder brought him back out of his thoughts. When he looked down he found Obito slumped in the seat next to him with eyes closed and head leaning up against the shoulder beside him.

“You know, we didn’t really do much,” Kakashi pointed out. “And it’s barely halfway to noon. I don’t know that you have any right to be tired.”

“It’s the adrenaline and crap! I know we didn’t do a whole lot but I feel really drained anyway. Do you think all missions are like this?”

“We’ll find out I suppose.” 

Obito nodded against him, slipping closer when a bump in the road shifted them all in their seats. “Together, right? Don’t go running off anywhere dangerous unless I’m there to watch your back.” 

Whatever response he might have come up with died in his throat as Kakashi was suddenly very busy shoving down an odd fluttering sensation in his chest. It was something that only ever seemed to happen around his best friend - well, one of his best friends. Technically he would count Rin as his other best friend but he’d always felt a connection to Obito that didn’t exist with anyone else, even long before the two of them were captured and clinging to each other as their last connections to sanity. 

He was grateful for the interruption when the van’s radio sputtered to life - until he heard the sibilant voice that hissed at them through the speaker system. All the blood in his veins turned to ice and he barely registered Obito stiffening against him but for the way they both reached out for one another instinctively. 

“ _ That wasn’t very nice of you to assault my employees.”  _ Kakashi would know that voice anywhere. It would haunt his worst nightmares until the day he died. “ _ I think you’ll find that theft of property is just as illegal as the use of inhuman abilities.” _

“People are not property!” Hashirama growled.

“Who is this?” Mito demanded before losing her breath to the way Izuna shifted his weight atop her. A familiar voice hissed the answer through their com system before the man on the radio could. 

_ Orochimaru! You tell that flea-ridden son of a fuck that if he isn’t dead before I see him again then he will be after! _

_ “My identity is of no concern to you,” _ the one named Orochimaru told them, unaware they had just been told anyway. “ _ Know that I’ve been watching the activities of your little resistance group and that you have, shall we say, my interest. Do not interfere with my business again. You have been warned.”  _

There was nothing to indicate that he was gone, leaving everyone in the vehicle silent for several minutes as they waited to hear if he would say anything more, listening to nothing but Tsunade’s vicious swearing in their ears. Kakashi shivered in tandem with his best friend, both of them grateful to Tsunade for providing a very timely distraction. Neither of them had ever known his name. Often they had been too drugged up to memorize his face either. But the sound of that voice clinically making notes as he conducted his cruel experiments on living bodies, that wasn’t something they would ever forget. Fingers slid in to his palm and Kakashi closed his own around them almost before he registered that Obito was holding his hand. A part of his brain wanted to implode trying to consider the implications of it but he knew it was only because the other boy was as scared as he was - and there was no shame in that. After the things they had seen there would never be any shame between them. 

On his other side a set of tinier fingers reached out and Kakashi looked down to find the little girl looking up at him with so much trust in her eyes he wanted to tell her that she was wrong. He wasn’t worthy of a trust that pure. He wasn’t sure anyone in the world could be. 

“What’s your name, little one?” he asked instead, realizing that he hadn’t yet. 

“Hinata. And this is Shino. Where are we going?”

“Somewhere safe where there are other people like us, people who have powers and aren’t afraid to use them.” He gave her fingers a little squeeze. “My name’s Kakashi. And this here is Obito.” 

Much too calmly for a child so little, Hinata nodded once. Then she asked, “Do you have a super name? My mama had a super name. She wouldn’t tell me what it was, though.”

He hesitated but Obito was right there answering for him. 

“We call him The Prophet because he can see in to the future a little. He hates it but it’s stuck and he’s not getting out of it. I’m Fade! I can walk through stuff!” He grinned, full of the same fire as always, and Kakashi noted with a touch of pride that he had rather neatly avoided asking the little girl about her own powers. They didn’t have confirmation she had any yet, nor that she would be okay sharing them. Lots of people were touchy about revealing themselves. Not to mention that her mother sounded like the kind of person who would have instilled the need for secrecy. Hinata looked between the two of them very seriously. Then she leaned up against Kakashi’s free side and closed her eyes. 

“I want to be like you,” she said. 

Before Kakashi could figure out how those simple words made him feel she was asleep. Obito spluttered on his other side that he was just as good and how come no one ever wanted to be like him? For the most part Kakashi let it all go in one ear and out the other. Harder to ignore was the warmth that pressed even closer in to his side but as Obito continued to blatantly ignore their proximity Kakashi figured the only rational thing for him to do was ignore it as well. 

The rest of the ride wasn’t exactly silent since Genma spent the whole time asking Izuna endless questions but Kakashi could not have repeated a single word that was said. He was lost in his own head, entirely preoccupied with the two people using him as a tandem pillow. As uncomfortable as he was within a few minutes he refused to move until they were pulling in to the compound and something inside of him unwound that he hadn’t even realized was knotted. Rin’s protective field wasn’t something he could feel, there was no physical sensation to it, but knowing she was there and that here was a safe place no one could ever hurt him loosened muscles that had been tense since he left where her range could reach him. He felt almost as if he were melting in to his seat as they rolled through the compound and in to the underground garage where most of the vehicles stayed for safe keeping. If anything ever happened to Rin - although just the thought of it gave Kakashi shivers - then at least their transportation wouldn’t make an easy target for anyone.

Several people were already waiting to greet them, medical supplies at the ready in case Hashirama was for some reason unable to heal where necessary. It wasn’t until the second van rolled in a minute or two later and Asuma stepped out with blood dripping down the side of his face that Kakashi realized he hadn’t spared a single thought for whether or not anyone else got injured. He and Obito had made it through without a scratch. Something inside of him had just assumed that if they could make it then everyone else must be fine as well. 

Coming home from his first mission wasn’t nearly as heroic as he’d always pictured it being. Actually it was mostly boring, a little confusing. It wouldn’t be until later that he realized he was experiencing a light adrenaline crash, leaving him tired and a bit loopy, confusing the rush around him even more. He watched Madara get cornered for a very quiet but very intense conversation by Tobirama and stared at the two of them with absolutely no thoughts in his head until they broke apart with matching flushes when Hashirama called for everyone to meet in the mission room upstairs. Debriefing after their mission was probably important. It sounded like an important thing. The only thing Kakashi managed to absorb throughout that interminable hour, however, was that no one had taken serious injuries. He was fairly sure Tobirama took some sort of interest in the helmet little Shino was wearing but it was hard to concentrate with his eyelids drooping and Obito collapsed against his side again. At least this time he wasn’t being used as a pillow from both sides, although Rin had taken possession of his other hand like she needed physical proof that the two of them had come back to her whole and healthy. 

Someone spoke to him at some point. Then someone else. By the time he was released to wander the halls made unfamiliar by this sudden exhaustion Kakashi felt like he was viewing the world from underwater. All he cared about was the bed waiting for him to collapse on. It was possible that someone was trying to guide him but he couldn’t be sure, vision narrowed and mind focused entirely on the concept of continuing forward until he could rest. Was he in shock? He should probably care but it would have to wait for later.

When finally he collapsed in his bed he didn’t remember arriving in his room at all and he couldn’t be bothered to think about it very hard. All that mattered was the soft mattress that caught his body in a messy freefall and the darkness behind his own eyelids. It took a massive amount of strength but Kakashi managed to crack his eyes back open just for a moment, just to blink across the room and see that Obito was there with him, safe and sound. Then he let that knowledge pull him down until the world faded and he knew no more. 


	3. Chapter 3

Something was moving in the false darkness of curtains pulled across their window. Kakashi struggled valiantly to convince his eyelids they needed to open but managed only the slightest crack. Useless. It was clearly still the middle of the day judging by the brightness trying very hard to get in to the room and whatever was making that rustling noise was coming from behind him. Every cell in his body was screaming with an unearned exhaustion to the point where Kakashi spent a few moments trying to decide whether or not he cared that he might be in danger. Then he huffed at the vision that came to him and let his eyes seal themselves shut again, thoroughly unconcerned. 

When the mattress dipped he grunted to let Obito know his presence had been noted but gave no other response. Midday was sleep time - at least it was right now. As much as his dreams hadn’t been fantastic he would have preferred to get back to them than to stay awake any longer, still unreasonably tired after the rush of his very first mission. It wasn’t until something whimpered in the space just behind his shoulders that he realized anything was wrong. The vision hadn’t shown him more than his friend coming over to stand behind him, leaving him at the disadvantage of not knowing what might be amiss. Another grunt escaped him as he struggled to roll over, this time an expression of effort, but as soon as he took in Obito’s huddled form he found any other sounds were beyond him. Even the mechanism of breathing felt suddenly difficult. 

It wasn’t hard to remember the last time he had seen Obito in such distress. Only a handful of months had passed since they were both rescued from the bowels of an earthly hell and the effects of the time they had spent there would no doubt take years more to fade - if they ever truly did. There were a hundred different small things that might have triggered the attack happening right next to him on the bed where Obito lay curled in to the tightest ball his body could manage as he shivered uncontrollably. 

“Can you talk?” Kakashi whispered as softly as he could manage. 

“I had a nightmare,” Obito breathed in to the minimal space between them. That was all he needed to say.

“What do you need?” 

He didn’t get an answer at first. Kakashi waited patiently until a pale face shifted just slightly in to view. “Can I sleep here?” Obito asked him, something desperate clinging to the edges of his words. 

It was a desperation they both understood all too well. 

“Of course.” Another inch of face revealed itself so Kakashi felt safe enough to urge his friend, “Just get yourself comfortable first.” 

That was important, he had learned. Whenever he went through this himself he had to force himself to unclench before unconsciousness took him or else he would spend the rest of the day sore with muscle cramps. And of course thinking about the soreness would only lead his mind back to the source of his cramps, forcing him to keep thinking about the one thing he wanted to think about as little as possible for the rest of time. Obito knew this too. Still, it took awhile for the initial panic to fade enough that he could uncurl himself, a process Kakashi could only help with by reaching out to brush their fingers together. Only when his friend shakily reached back did he allow their fingers to entwine. 

“I’m right here,” he said. 

“Yeah. And we’re safe here.” It wasn’t entirely clear whose benefit Obito was saying that for.

“Definitely safe. I’ll tell you if something is going to happen, alright?” 

“Alright.”

Their eyes met in the darkness and Kakashi did what he could to stop his own gaze from drifting to the dull shadows where Obito had wrapped a cloth around his head in place of the eyepatch he usually wore. Apparently the elastic band was uncomfortable to sleep in. Underneath the cloth there would be only emptiness, a void that should have been filled with the eye Kakashi himself now bore. He understood why that vile creature had experimented on him. Logically he knew the reasons. Still there was a childishness inside of him that wanted to cry and demand a better explanation from god or fate or whatever the hell was responsible for the terrible things they had gone through in that lab. 

His train of thought must have been obvious. Either that or Obito knew him just a little too well. Without saying a word his friend lifted the hand not woven between them and held it out, waiting, an offer he was free to refuse. Kakashi lifted his own and pressed their palms together. Both of them watched the material of his sleeve fall through the space where Obito’s hand should have stopped it, the power of a boy who had named himself Fade, and yet the flesh of Kakashi’s palm met a firm resistance where his clothing had not.

“Sometimes I think you’re the only thing that’s real,” Obito confessed, bold in the quiet midday shadows. “I can walk through walls and people and rock. Anything. But not you. You’re the only thing that’s always real for me.”

“Probably because I have a piece of you inside me. Minato-sensei was talking about it once when he thought I couldn’t hear, he said the resonance of your eye cancels out the rest of you. Or something like that.” Kakashi shifted his palm until it was at such an angle he could spread his fingers and slide them between Obito’s to mirror their other hands. “Honestly I don’t much care about the why. Not when I don’t even understand them, anyway.”

Obito shrugged and said no more. After shaking their arms to get Kakashi’s sleeve out of the way he released his powers and let their hands drop on to the mattress between them, just two boys afraid of the shadows in their own minds more so than the ones around them. Since it felt clear enough that the conversation was over Kakashi let his eyes slide shut again and made sure not to move so much as an inch when his friend shifted closer. When he fell asleep again at last it was to the warm beat of Obito’s heart so close to his own, the safety of hands holding tight, and the comfort of curling in to the one person he valued above anything else in this world.

His dreams, if they came, must have been mild for the rest of the night. None of them were significant enough to imprint on his memory, leaving his mind pleasantly blank and empty in that single shining moment of waking hours later. 

And then he shot up ramrod straight in a hot panic at the sound of a high pitched scream. 

Instantly adrenaline flooded his system but it still took a few heartbeats for the rest of his body to catch up, leaving him blinking rapidly at the mess of his own room, cool with the onset of night at last, before he realized that it wasn’t a scream he was hearing. It was Rin standing at the end of his bed with both hands clapped over her mouth and squealing like she’d just discovered an entire box full of newborn puppies. 

“You might have noticed,” he grated out in sleep-rough syllables, “but we were sleeping.” 

“Together!” she squealed, almost seeming to vibrate with the force of her own words. Kakashi blinked slowly as he tried to parse out the significance of that. 

“Uh-huh. Looks that way. Can we go back to sleep now?” 

Without waiting for an answer he collapsed back down on to the mattress. If he’d had the energy he would have smiled a little at the low grunt of agreement Obito huffed in his ear. Apparently he wasn’t a big fan of being awoken in such a manner either. Unfortunately Rin seemed to have other plans that did not involve letting them drift back in to dreamland for just five more minutes. 

“You two are so cute, oh my god! You have to tell me everything! How did it happen? Who said something first?” As she was speaking she clambered on to the bed with them, planting herself firmly in the tiny space between their knees. 

“Said who about what?” Obito groaned and curled in to himself. “What are you even talking about?” 

“I want to know who confessed first!” Rin demanded. 

“And I want to know why you’re yelling…”

Kakashi agreed in the silence of his mind. An explanation would be nice - as long as it was followed with her leaving so they could get even just five more minutes. Instead she flapped her hands at them in a wordless command to stop being silly. 

“Come on!” she cried. “Stop being jerks! You’re all cuddled up together, I  _ know _ you both like each other, so who confessed first? Ooh I can’t believe it’s finally happened! I’m so happy for you guys!” Swooping down to gather them both in a large hug, she didn’t seem to notice they had both gone very stiff. “Seriously, the two of you are so cute together, everyone thinks so. I can’t believe you’re finally dating!” 

“We’re what!?” Obito was the first to react - and it was not a reaction that gave Kakashi many good feelings. 

Leaping out of the bed like it was on fire, his friend stumbled several feet away and then stopped to scratch at the back of his head awkwardly, spouting a hundred denials at once. While he told Rin she was crazy for seeing too deeply in to things that obviously weren’t there Kakashi retreated a little farther in to himself. His chest felt hollow. It felt like something he hadn’t even truly acknowledged that he wanted was being ripped away before his eyes and all he wanted was for the world to stop for a moment so he could mourn, so he could learn to pretend he’d never wanted it in the first place. Unfortunately for him the universe had never been known for showing that kind of mercy. 

Rin backpedaled as hard as she could, apologizing for making assumptions and easily accepting the honest explanation that they had only fallen asleep in the same bed for comfort. If he were thinking clearly Kakashi would have been a little surprised she hadn’t leapt to that explanation first for herself. With the collective traumas housed in their compound, finding comfort where one could was definitely a common theme for many people. 

“So...now that this is super weird I’m just going to go to breakfast alone. I was going to drag you two along but, uh, I don’t think I could have a conversation without blushing my own face off right now so...bye!” Ears flaming with embarrassment, Rin scrambled out of the room as quickly as she had come and left the two of them alone.

Listening to the sound of her feet pattering away down the hall, Kakashi wondered how much begging it would take to convince the universe to smite him right there on the spot or whether he would have more luck convincing the ground to open up and swallow him. At the very least he would have really appreciated the power of invisibility just then. Something -  _ anything _ \- to get him away from the sound of Obito’s spluttered denials. Did the idiot have to sound so offended by the mere suggestion of them being together? The implied rejection already hurt, he didn’t have to rub salt in the wound too. Kakashi’s only consolation was that his friend’s dramatics gave him time to clear away any signs of pain on his own face before they could be seen. Just because he was experiencing a mind blowing revelation at the worst possible time didn’t mean he needed to share any of that information. 

It took a minute or two after they were alone for Obito to calm down enough that he was able to form actual sentences. When he turned to meet Kakashi’s eyes the way he almost immediately looked away again stung more than it should have. 

“She was just, uh, yeah.” Obito swallowed hard and waved his hands aimlessly through the air. “Rin’s always making a big deal of stuff!” 

“Uh huh.” Despite his agreement, Kakashi was well aware that Rin did not, in fact, often make a big deal of everything. In fact she was generally the one out of the three of them who managed to keep her head when things went wrong. Her steadiness was the perfect compliment to both of them that had cemented their three way friendship so tightly. 

“I mean, obviously there’s nothing wrong with sleeping in the same bed, right? She’s just jumping to conclusions!” 

“Yeah, I guess so.” 

No matter how hard he tried, Kakashi couldn’t summon the wild energy to match his friend. He knew it looked suspicious. Unless he started making an effort to seem just as affronted as the other it would not take long before it became obvious that he wasn’t. Rather than insulted by Rin’s assumptions he felt wounded by them. The last thing he had expected of his very first mission as a super was the uncovering of a massive festering sore of hope deep in his heart followed almost immediately by the cauterization of having these new feelings rejected before he could even express them. Life, apparently, was determined to be cruel about this. 

“Bakashi? Right? She’s just...she’s just making leaps right?” 

“I said yeah, Obito, didn’t you hear me?” Kakashi folded his arms across his chest, hoping the gesture looked more defensive than like he was trying to hold together the massive wound splitting his heart open. 

His friend eyed him for a moment and then cleared his throat, carefully looking in any another direction. “You sound, er, pretty calm about it.” 

“What do you want me to do?” Kakashi snapped. “Jump up to the ceiling and scream my head off?”

“I’m just saying. She thinks we’re...like...together. That doesn’t bother you?”

“That she believes I would stoop to the level of dating someone who picks their own toes in public spaces? A little but I can’t control what she thinks.”

For a moment he thought his natural sass had saved him, that the distraction of offense was enough to take Obito’s mind off the rest of his suspiciously calm behavior, but it was not to be. Unfortunately his partner seemed to have acquired a few extra brain cells when no one was looking. That was the only possible explanation. In all the time they’d known each other Obito had never once shown any sort of sleuthing abilities and yet somehow now, when Kakashi needed him to look away the most, he found it within himself to practice reason and logic.

Typical. 

Desperate for anything that could serve as a distraction, Kakashi frantically cast his eyes about the room for something that might spark a conversation. The floor was mostly clear but for the pile of both their dirty laundry heaped in one corner. Neither of their bedside tables contained anything more than an alarm clock and a couple of comic books. In a moment of panic he opened his mouth to spout some kind of nonsense about the posters hanging up between their beds. Obito spoke before he could. 

“You’re looking really wild around the eyes, is something wrong?” 

“Nothing!” Kakashi mentally cursed his own body for betraying him as his voice cracked at just the wrong time. 

“It...I mean...you agreed that she was just making wild guesses,” his friend pointed out. 

Without any sort of strong rebuttal in mind he was left with nothing but to shrug helplessly. He could practically feel the moment something clicked inside Obito’s mind. One moment there was nothing but confusion and suspicion on his face and then the next his one eye was slowly widening, jaw hanging open lower and lower until the only way to describe his expression would be gawking. It wasn’t such an unusual expression to find on him, being the overly emotional person he was, but Kakashi generally only found himself on the end of it when he meant to be, when he was teasing, looking for a reaction. Not like this. He wasn’t used to honest disbelief. 

“Man, you gotta say  _ something _ or I’m gonna start thinking her guesses weren’t so wild. I mean, it’s not like you like me or anything. Right?” 

It was the too-casual way he forced the last word out that should have caught Kakashi’s attention. Were he paying attention that would have been a dead giveaway. Unfortunately for his stress levels he was too focused on the heat he could feel rising in his cheeks and the prayers he was sending out for the earth to open up and swallow him whole already, an all too obvious sign that he was nowhere near achieving the casual look he’d been trying for. Such was his luck. After spending so much time and effort trying to look cool and pretend he wasn’t affected by his own emotions it was only the most appropriate karma that said emotions should be his downfall now. 

“Okay so…” Obito cocked his head to one side. “I was kind of kidding before but…”

“Do you want to go get some breakfast!?” Kakashi blurted in a last ditch attempt to move away from the subject. His friend was having absolutely none of that. 

“Baka- uh, Kakashi. Um. Do you...like me? I mean  _ like me  _ like me, you know? Do you, er, have a crush or something? Cause that’s totally cool if you do, I mean, super cool. Way cool. Not terrible and stuff. Um. I just need to know for sure. So...do you?” 

Continuing his current trend of missing every clue that should have been incredibly obvious, Kakashi thought absolutely nothing of the other’s nervous mannerisms. In his mind the stuttering and repeated words were just a symptom of the supreme discomfort of knowing one’s best friend had developed unwanted feelings that weren’t shared. 

Unfortunately he didn’t see a way he could play it off at this point. He was already about as red as a cherry on both cheeks and he was sure that his eyes were so wide they were probably in danger of falling right out. He might as well buy himself a neon sign that flashed and spelled out ‘I am in love with my best friend’. Surely even that could not have made him look more guilty of unwanted emotions than he already did. At the very least he was grateful Obito didn’t look mad at him, although that could just have been the shock buffering him against feeling anything else just yet. 

“Would you believe me if I said no?” Kakashi asked in a small voice without much hope. 

He was unprepared for the corners of the other boy’s mouth to turn up, slowly widening out in to a massive grin so happy that he could have been mistaken for a lottery winner. 

“Nope. I would not believe you at all. You  _ like _ me, Bakashi!” 

“Shut up!” If possible, his face burned even hotter as Kakashi struggled his way out of the bedsheets to stand, feeling just slightly more in control of the situation once he was up on his own legs. 

“You like me! You like me!” Obito chanted in a singsong voice, much to Kakashi’s mortification. 

“Clearly I just have terrible taste so don’t take it as a compliment or something!” He crossed his arms and turned his body away in the hopes that it would disguise some of the hurt on his face. “Just leave me alone. It- I’m sure it’ll fade or something. It’s just hormones.” 

For a very brief moment his friend went absolutely still and Kakashi almost thought some god or another might have finally answered his prayers and bashed the realization in to Obito’s head that teasing about this situation would definitely not be appreciated. But of course the moment was only brief. A heartbeat later he watched his friend throw both hands out in front of him and flail them around in the kind of frantic outburst he was so well known for. 

“Wait! Hold on! I’m not trying to be mean!” 

“You sure?” Kakashi sniffed. “You’re not being nice, in any case.” 

“No! Hold on, I just- I mean- ugh!” Obito dropped his arms and let his head fall back for a moment, staring up at the ceiling like an exasperated man gathering his strength to deal with a particularly stubborn idiocy. 

Defensive instincts had Kakashi moving towards the door before he could become that stubborn idiot. “I’m gonna go find Rin and tell her to keep her mouth shut so no one else bothers us about this.” 

He didn’t make it very far, only three steps, at which point Obito launched himself across the room hands first to take hold of his shoulders and spin him around. At first Kakashi didn’t realize what was happening. The only thing he could see was a blur of peach and black, his face squished up in an unfamiliar way. It wasn’t until Obito shifted his weight awkwardly that he realized they were kissing. 

Kissing! 

With their lips and everything!

Every neural pathway in Kakashi’s brain short circuited all at once and every possible train of thought crashed before it could even leave the station. The only thing in the entire universe that mattered for him in that moment was the awkward pressure of Obito’s mouth against his own in a way that made it obvious neither one of them had done this before. Which was fine. Living the life of a fugitive didn’t exactly create many opportunities for meeting new people or going on dates. Not that he would have wanted to with anyone else, although Kakashi wasn’t sure if that was because he had unconsciously recognized his feelings long before now or if he really just disliked most of humanity. They did tend to be pretty stupid as a whole. 

Pulling apart was just as ungraceful as the entire rest of this debacle had been but it came with the unexpected bonus of seeing Obito with his cheeks as red as Kakashi was sure his own were. The two of them stared each other down while they slowly came to terms with the fact that what had just happened actually did happen. Eventually it was the other boy who spoke first. 

“Uhm,” he began intelligently, tongue darting out to run over his bottom lip. “So yeah. I wasn’t trying to be mean. Er, I was just excited but I guess that didn’t come across very well. I  _ like you  _ like you too. So there!” 

“Oh,” was all Kakashi could think to say.

“And I wasn’t like offended or anything by Rin, I was just super embarrassed and worried that you would realize she was kind of on the mark for me but I thought you didn’t feel the same way so-”

“You can stop talking.” Slapping a hand over his friend’s mouth seemed like the best way to stem the flow. “I get it. I’m not mad.”

For a moment he paused, mostly from the shock that still had adrenaline running madly through his veins, then he gave his hand a considering look. Obito didn’t seem to disagree when he removed it to dart in for another kiss. Surely with practice they could improve their obviously lacking skills; what better time than now to start?

Apparently later would have been a much better time to start practicing the art of mashing their faces together. They discovered as much when the door swung open uninvited for the second time in the scant few minutes they had been awake, this time to admit Tobirama. Both boys leapt away from each other but of course it was too late. Poor Tobirama stood in the doorway with an entire parade of emotions dancing across his face, from surprise to pride to a very deep grief, and Kakashi knew the source of that pain only through whispers and observations. A touch of guilt rose up in his chest that he immediately squashed down. Tobirama was not the sort who wanted the pity of others for his own personal tragedies. 

“My apologies,” the man said. “I didn’t realize I would be interrupting anything so early in the morning.” As he spoke he absently shook one of his hands to crack the ice forming around it. Kakashi chose to watch those glittering shards fall to the floor instead of meeting anyone’s eyes. 

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s annoying!” Obito snorted.

Giving his friend - and possibly now his boyfriend - a light shove at least seemed to amuse their guest. 

“Rin mentioned that the two of you were back among the living. One of our new guests has been asking after you almost constantly since this morning, I thought you might wish to visit her.” One of Tobirama’s pale eyebrows lifted along with the corner of his mouth. His eyes were still pained, obviously uncomfortable with seeing the two of them find what he wanted so badly yet couldn’t have, but he managed to hide it well under the veneer of finding happiness for them as well. Whatever was going on inside his head must have been terribly complicated. 

Thankfully Kakashi didn’t need to think on that too hard, more than happy to grasp at the distraction so easily offered to him. “Right, Hinata and...er...I think...Shino?”

At the older man’s nod he perked up a little. He’d always thought falling in love and making out all the time turned peoples’ brains to mush but his own memory seemed to be working just fine still, although maybe it was a symptom that took a little more time to start showing. Either way, now that he remembered them he was eager to go check on the two young kids they had helped to rescue that day. Seeing the fruits of their heroic efforts was just the sort of thing he needed. 

To see what effect they could really have, to see the ways they could change lives for the better, those were the things he had dreamed of since the day he realized he had powers. He might have still been a little young when he met up with the resistance group he’d come to think of as family but now? Now he was fourteen years old with his very first successful mission already behind him. With Obito by his side, a dozen or so strong adults to guide them, and Rin waiting to welcome them home it was hard to imagine that anything could ever possibly go wrong. 

Very obviously a fool’s thought but Kakashi found he was in just good enough of a mood to allow such childish enthusiasm. 

“Thanks Tobirama, I would like to see them.” He turned to Obito with a smile, gathered his nerves, and held out a hand. “You coming too?”

“Wherever you go,” his friend murmured. 

As both their faces lit up with fresh embarrassment Tobirama spun around to march back down the hall, muttering under his breath about children and inappropriate displays of affection. Kakashi followed after him with Obito’s hand in his own and laughter bubbling up his throat. Life had thrown a lot at everyone who lived here in the compound. Him more so than many others. In that moment, though, Kakashi thought that maybe he didn’t need his powers to see the future. 

He already knew it would all be okay. 


End file.
